Paul Wolfowitz

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT PAUL WOLFOWITZ - PAGE 2

WASHINGTON: The United States vowed Friday to quickly find a successor to disgraced World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz, leaving open the possibility of naming a non-American in a break from a much criticized tradition. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is leading the process to select a new World Bank president to replace Wolfowitz, who announced his resignation Thursday following weeks of turmoil over a favoritism scandal. Wolfowitz said he would step down on June 30 in the "best interests" of the bank following weeks of pressure over a generous pay and promotion package he arranged for his girlfriend, a bank employee.

WASHINGTON: On the heels of the World Bank suspending funds to a health and transport project in India suspecting fraud, its president Paul Wolfowitz has said the lending institution would team up with developing countries to weed out corruption. "Corruption is often at the very root of why governments don't work. It weakens the systems and distorts the markets. In the end, governments and citizens will pay a price, in lower incomes, lower investments and more volatile economic swings," a World Bank statement quoted Mr Wolfowitz as saying in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The whole sorry Wolfowitz affair has finally drawn to a close. Now that he has agreed to resign as president of the World Bank, it is time to start thinking more closely about the future of that institution. From the first, this columnist was critical of the way he was chosen because one has for long opposed the "old boy" agreement between the United States and Europe, by which the US always appoints the head of the World Bank and Europe the head of the International Monetary Fund. This unspoken arrangement dates from the founding of the Bretton Woods institutions at a time when colonialism was still alive, and makes no sense in the twenty-first century.

WASHINGTON: World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz lashed back at critics who he said were conducting a smear campaign against him and vowed he would not resign. In a statement to a bank panel looking into whether he broke ethical and other rules in a pay-and-promotion deal he directed for his girlfriend, Wolfowitz said treatment of the issue had become "circus like. " "The goal of this smear campaign, I believe, is to create a self-fulfilling prophecy that I am an ineffective leader and must step down for that reason alone, even if the ethics charges are unwarranted," Wolfowitz said in a statement.

WASHINGTON: At war with his staff and propped up by an unpopular US administration, scandal-hit World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz faces a crisis of credibility just under two years into his stormy tenure. For many observers, the moral authority of the former US deputy defense secretary is in shreds at a time when the 185-member organization risks irrelevancy six decades after it was created to combat poverty. "If he stays, he's so enfeebled that he can't execute the job," argued Manish Bapna, director of the Bank Information Center, an independent group which tracks World Bank affairs.

WASHINGTON: World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz refused to resign unless the agency's board mutes criticism of the pay increase awarded to his companion, extending negotiations over his departure. "He is not going to resign under a cloud, plain and simple," Wolfowitz's attorney, Robert Bennett, said on without elaborating. The president cancelled a trip to Slovenia and has been told by the German government that he's unwelcome at an anti-poverty conference in Berlin next week.

The US nomination of Paul Wolfowitz as the next World Bank president has created an instant industry in wisecracks (Wolf in sheep's clothing, Wolf at the door). Half-serious jokes are made about his invading Bank borrowers to impose democracy at gun-point. Wolfowitz should learn from Robert McNamara, who also moved from the Pentagon to the World Bank. McNamara sought to impose democracy at gun-point in Vietnam. Wolfowitz attempted something similar in Iraq. Like Wolfowitz today, McNamara inspired fears among developing countries when he moved to the World Bank.

BERLIN: World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is not welcome at an Africa forum the bank is holding in Berlin next week if he is still in his post at the time, German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said. Speaking to reporters in Berlin on Wednesday, the minister said she did not want the issue of the World Bank's leadership to distract from a discussion of development aid for Africa at the two-day meeting which begins on Monday. "I would not advise him to (take part)

RANCHI: External affairs minister Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday accused Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf of irresponsible statements when most nations, he said, are convinced who the real sponsor of terrorism in India is. "Musharraf continues to give irresponsible statements after every incident exposes Pakistan's links with terrorism," Sinha told reporters here reacting to Mr Musharraf's statement on Monday. The General had said that he would pay New Delhi back in the same coin if it continued its 'aggressive' postures towards Islamabad.

SINGAPORE: India on Monday lashed out at the World Bank for over-emphasis on issues of governance and corruption, which it said cannot replace the core of the development agenda, crucial for the uplift of millions of poor and downtrodden in developing and emerging economies. "We believe that the issues of governance and corruption are vital, but they cannot replace the core of the development agenda, which is the support needed by millions of poor and downtrodden," Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in his oral intervention at the policy-making development committee meeting of the World Bank here.